The creators of Rough Face Girl (1992) and The Boy Who Lived With the Seals (1993) belatedly get together for another strongly told, strikingly illustrated folktale. Detailing his own additions in an appended note, Martin reworks an old Hawaiian myth into a story of mercy rewarded. After freeing a trapped shark rather than allow it to be killed, two children celebrate by tapping on the king’s drum, which is forbidden. When the hard-hearted king condemns them to death, their parents pay a call on Kauhuhu, the Shark God, who summons up a great wave that destroys the village, frees the children, and washes the reunited family on its way toward a distant, kinder home. Shannon peoples his island scenes with sturdy, tattooed, mahogany-skinned figures, but Kauhuhu, magnificently huge and ferocious, is by far the most powerful presence here: human in form, but with silver skin, decidedly sharklike features, and an immense toothy mouth tattooed across his shoulder blades. A slight confusion at the end identifies the father as a canoe-builder for the first time calling him by that name, but there’s enough joy, terror, and drama here to captivate any reader or listener. (Picture book/folktale. 7-10)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-590-39500-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Levine/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2001
Trickling, bubbling, swirling, rushing, a river flows down from its mountain beginnings, past peaceful country and bustling city on its way to the sea. Hooper (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) artfully evokes the water’s changing character as it transforms from “milky-cold / rattling-bold” to a wide, slow “sliding past mudflats / looping through marshes” to the end of its journey. Willey, best known for illustrating Geraldine McCaughrean’s spectacular folk-tale collections, contributes finely detailed scenes crafted in shimmering, intricate blues and greens, capturing mountain’s chill, the bucolic serenity of passing pastures, and a sense of mystery in the water’s shadowy depths. Though Hooper refers to “the cans and cartons / and bits of old wood” being swept along, there’s no direct conservation agenda here (for that, see Debby Atwell’s River, 1999), just appreciation for the river’s beauty and being. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0792-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
McDonald’s irrepressible third-grader (Judy Moody Gets Famous, 2001, etc.) takes a few false steps before hitting full stride. This time, not only has her genius little brother Stink submitted a competing entry in the Crazy Strips Band-Aid design contest, but in the wake of her science teacher’s heads-up about rainforest destruction and endangered animals, she sees every member of her family using rainforest products. It’s all more than enough to put her in a Mood, which gets her in trouble at home for letting Stink’s pet toad, Toady, go free, and at school for surreptitiously collecting all the pencils (made from rainforest cedar) in class. And to top it off, Stink’s Crazy Strips entry wins a prize, while she gets . . . a certificate. Chronicled amusingly in Reynolds’s frequent ink-and-tea drawings, Judy goes from pillar to post—but she justifies the pencil caper convincingly enough to spark a bottle drive that nets her and her classmates not only a hundred seedling trees for Costa Rica, but the coveted school Giraffe Award (given to those who stick their necks out), along with T-shirts and ice cream coupons. Judy’s growing corps of fans will crow “Rare!” right along with her. (Fiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-7636-1446-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2002
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